Comment by mcphilip | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mcphilip | Hacker News Reader

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It's hard to imagine the type of person that would be on the fence about Soylent that would be ok with it after reading this article. Hopefully the "it was beta" excuse for producing Soylent in an unhealthy environment won't fly outside of SV culture. If anything, it should bring up serious doubts about the integrity of a team that, when faced with overwhelming demand and flush with investor cash, stoop to a level of cognitive dissonance necessary to claim lofty goals of fighting hunger worldwide while sidestepping around the rats and filth in their "beta" production environment. If the Soylent team wants respect they should focus less on dreaming up scientific sounding rebranding campaigns and slow down the "deployment" of their product in order to subject it to rigorous scientific tests and trials before mailing it to strangers.

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Meta: wow, I really get worked up over this Soylent stuff. There's something deeply disturbing about this to me, like we're witnessing the birth of a monster. Maybe it's the first sign of the worst of the "move fast, break things" cutting corners culture smelling money to be made iterating on peoples' health...

That was the beta/promo batch. I fail to see how that's relevant now.

They're already subjecting the production version to rigorous testing.

As for trials, those cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are done for no other food. Are you suggesting that they simply not make Soylent because it hasn't gone through a phase 3?

I bet you're real fun at bake sales.

That's the point. You don't get to "beta" foodstuffs.

Try running a public beta on some cancer drugs and see how far you get.

> Try running a public beta on some cancer drugs and see how far you get.

1) This isn't a public beta.

2) If cancer drugs WEREN'T tested before being sold, I would be far more worried.

There is "compassionate use"1 by cancer drugs which would be similar...though perhaps more like a private beta.

[1]http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/cli...

Sure you can beta test foodstuffs. They're not under the same level of regulatory scrutiny as cancer drugs. That is well established by the FDA.

>That was the beta/promo batch. I fail to see how that's relevant now.

Beneath the snark and hyperbole in my post, this was intended to be my point. I don't feel like someone with this mindset necessarily warrants trust in their ability to safely make the product in the future.

I just get this gut reaction against Soylent that makes me care less about structuring my thoughts in a more civilized manner. Back to ruining fun at bake sales.

Isn't it just the first behind-the-scenes look at food production for most of us? A rat scurrying by on camera just looks worse than what frequently goes on in the storage room of your or my local food market.

As far as the "beta testing on strangers" aspect, I'd point you to sneak's comment[1], which sums up the slight absurdity of requiring one food to be rigorously tested and adhere to some hypothetical standard. I frequently eat MetRx "meal replacement bars"[2] and I don't assume they are held to any rigorous trials. After some cursory research, I don't even know if Plumpy'nut[3] is held to any standard, aside from beta testing it on starving children and seeing if they improve.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6722836

[2] http://www.metrx.com/protein-bars/

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut

A rat scurrying by on camera just looks worse than what frequently goes on....

Currently in NorCal, there are rodents infected with both Bubonic Plague and Hemmoragic fever. And their <shit> is an effective vector that can get you killed. Even if they are nowhere in sight. So, its best to be somewhat educated and conscientious on the topic.

My guess is you are also inherently troubled by what soylent is in itself, regardless of how it is made.

On the one hand I'm deeply suspicious of replacing food with something that is in a very approximate sense "equivalent". But he does make an excellent point that making healthy "food" convenient could prove to be a great boost to public health.

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